• Somewhere within the Marsh household, an alarm clock echoed. A hand reached out from beneath a large duvet and dropped on the snooze button, silencing the alarm clock. A body sat upright sharply, the duvet fell and revealed a small figured girl. She glanced at the clock and threw the covers off of her, “s**t!” She yelled and ran to the bathroom.

    Yeah, this is me. My name is Marissa Halsen and I am your average adopted teenager. As you may be able to tell, I tend to get up late and am almost always late for school. But that’s just me. Today I was starting grade 11 at a new school and it was my birthday. I don’t like my birthday very much as others, who basically love theirs. Strange things tend to happen on my birthday. On my 5th birthday, my nana came down with a very rare disease and died about a month later. On my 7th birthday, my mother and I had gotten in a car crash. My mom died and I walked away without a scratch, though I have no idea how I managed that. There were a few less serious birthdays after that but I have no idea what is going to happen today, seeing as it is my 16th birthday. My family tends to have problems with something on their 16th birthdays.

    I walked out of the bathroom about ten minutes later, my hair a total mess but oh well I would live. I ran as fast as I could to my closet but I tripped over one of my binders that was lying on the floor, I ended up doing a face plant on the floor. I groaned and got up, my left knee was skinned. It wasn’t too bad, though it was very red and was bleeding slightly.

    I finally made it to the closet and threw the door open, my eyes flickered over possible outfits. Finally my eyes fell upon my favourite Flyleaf t-shirt and dark skinny jeans, I smiled and pulled them off their hangers. I quickly slipped the outfit on and ran a brush through my mess of hair, checking in the mirror I sighed lightly. I ran my straightener through my hair.

    Finally satisfied with my appearance, I ran down the hall and slid down the stair banister. I landed, just barely, and put my shoes on as quickly as I could. I ran out the door, not many people were walking along my street except for a man walking his dog. I glanced at my watch and noticed it said ‘7:45am’, my first class started at 8:00am. “Damnit!” I yelled loudly.

    I jogged down the streets as quickly as my tall yet thin legs would carry me. After a few minutes I could see the school, and all the smokers that hang around outside. I held my breath as I ran past the smokers and didn’t exhale until I reached the front doors of the school. I didn’t even notice how cold it had been that morning until I had gotten inside the school. The inside of the school was very warm compared to outside, I thought I was going to die from over heating.

    I went through the double doors that lead me to the foyer of the school and I immediately noticed a small group of students, there appeared to be only four standing next to each other talking amongst themselves. The boy on the far left of the group was extremely cute, his black hair was styled to cover the right side of his face, he had dark brown eyes and snakebites. Though the instant that my eyes wondered to his face he met my gaze. I turned a light red and looked away, for some reason I thought he was growling at me.

    The bell rang loudly and I took my schedule out of my pocket, “Apparently I have English first.” I said to myself. I walked down one of the halls and found my English room; I looked around the room and noticed the cute guy was in my class. I smirked to myself and sat in the empty seat next to him. I noticed that both seats behind me and in front of me were empty, it was almost as if everyone shied away from the guy.

    A few of the girls in the class shot dagger glares at me when I had sat down. I rolled my eyes and I heard the guy snicker slightly. When the class started our teacher called out all our names the boy looked at me like I was something to amuse him. I had got looks of amusement before, but none like his.

    I studied the boy out of the corner of my eye. I had never met anyone like him before, though I technically hadn’t met him yet. Though everyone seemed to shy away from him, I felt extremely drawn to him. It was like some force wouldn’t let me stay away from him. He was cute, but that wasn’t what made me feel drawn to him, it was as if we shared something that I didn’t know about.

    He turned his head slightly in my direction, which caused me to instantly look away. His smirk grew as he tried not to laugh at me. I glared at him as best as I could, though I regretted it after a few seconds. The guy looked directly at me and growled only loud enough for me to hear. I shuddered slightly and he turned once more to face the front of the classroom.

    The teacher looked around the classroom, he yelled several times at a few girls who had been talking too much. Every once in a while I would write down a few notes, mostly what the teacher wrote on the board. I sighed lightly and began to contemplate a few things in my mind. Okay. So for some reason I feel drawn to this guy and yet I don’t know his name or anything about him. It feels as if we share something that I do not yet know of, though what that could be I haven’t the slightest idea. Apparently I amuse him a bit, though he basically acts like he hates me. He doesn’t talk too much, so he and I are alike in that particular sense. Man, I need to figure this out! I thought. I knew that this was something that needed to be figured out as quickly as possible.

    I had debated many theories within my mind, though none of them seemed even the slightest bit probable. The guy’s mouth constantly twitched, as though he had been resisting the temptation to smile. Eventually the bell rang, signalling the short break between classes. I picked up my books and slowly made my way out of the room, the guy was right behind me and for some reason it had felt as though he had been observing me, as if searching for some unknown fact about me.

    I shuddered once more and tried my hardest not to run out of the room. Though I couldn’t control the urge as well as I thought. Once I got out of the classroom, I walked as quickly as I could to my locker. The instant I got there I attempted to get my combination right, though I didn’t get it until about the fifth time. My hands were shaking, though I wasn’t frightened, I was curious. That guy had found me amusing and possibly interesting, yet he didn’t know a thing about me and I didn’t know a thing about him. I gently placed my books in the bottom of my locker and grabbed a regular notebook. I had Study Hall next and no homework, it would give me time to think and hopefully I would be able to sort out my thoughts quickly.

    I pushed all thoughts of him to deepest, darkest corner of my mind. I took a deep breath and looked up. My eyes gazed upon a large wooden door, almost as if it were part of some medieval movie that would lead to a dungeon. I cautiously reached out and turned the doorknob slowly, I peered inside and saw several people around my age that were studying. I fully walked into the Study Hall and peered around once more, to see everything. That’s when my heart skipped a beat.